State board delays vote on Roscoe surgery center

A state board on Tuesday delayed voting on a new ambulatory surgery center planned for Roscoe but approved a new dialysis center to be built in Belvidere.

The two local projects were included on a lengthy agenda for the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board monthly meeting in Normal.

Part of what board members do is regulate the certificate of need process, which regulates the establishment, discontinuation and modification of health care facilities and what types of services they offer.

Beloit Health System wants to add a $16.3 million expansion to its NorthPointe Health and Wellness Campus in Roscoe, which would include the surgery center. Outpatient surgery cases and gastrointestinal procedures would be relocated to NorthPointe, allowing health system officials to modernize the six operating rooms at Beloit Memorial Hospital.

Jason Dotson, a vice president for the health system, said Beloit officials asked that the vote on the project be delayed until the board’s April meeting because only five of nine board members were present Tuesday. The project needs five “yes” votes for approval.

The project does face opposition from Rockford-area hospital officials who say there’s not enough need to expand outpatient surgery offerings in the region. But Dotson has said the move would merely shift existing patient cases to a more convenient location.

“We would have liked to have approval today, but we’d like the full board to have the opportunity to hear our presentation,” Dotson said.

The state board’s next meeting is April 22.

Board members did give the OK for DaVita to build a 12-station dialysis clinic for kidney treatment at 1755 Beloit Road in Belvidere. Officials hope to open the 6,000-square-foot facility by mid-2015.

“This new center will allow us to serve the patients closer to home,” said Mary Anderson, DaVita division president, in an email. “Burdens of finding transportation will be drastically reduced as patients will no longer have to wait up to six hours just to receive the necessary transportation to and from dialysis.”

The center is expected to be open six days a week and offer flexible shifts so patients can schedule their dialysis around their work. The company has four locations in Rockford.